Sebulah
by Nyala Necheyev
Summary: Rose and The Doctor are separated on a planet inhabited by a colony populated by a genetically engineered race only know as the Hybrids. The Wraith, a horrifying genetic accident that feeds off of Humanoid life energy, are poised to attack the colony.
1. Chapter 1

**Sebulah**

**By Nyala Necheyev**

**Chapter One**

**Stranger's Shadow**

Kanin Jax, a tall, pale, light-brown-haired individual with pale, greenish skin, crept through the forest quiet as a mouse, his mouth tight shut, his yellow eyes searching through the early morning mists for some animal he could kill and take back to the village, so his people would not go hungry another night. Soon, Jax contemplated, the entire settlement would have to move to another patch of woods, one that was also just as dense and protected from aerial attacks and ground forces, but also populated with plenty of the local wildlife.

One leather-clad hand gripped the blade of his small dagger tightly as a small creature the size of a Terran dikdik scampered between two tall, ancient trees and rustled through the softened, dewy leaves strewn across the earthy ground, disturbing them and giving rise to a delightful smell, the scent of fresh, unbroken sod and moldy, decaying fauna. Jax breathed in deeply, then exhaled no more, eying the dikdik hungrily. Stalking it behind the trees as it passed them, Jax managed to confuse it into non-motion. As it paused, delicate little nose twitching urgently in a confused and fearful attempt to identify its pursuer, Jax drew back, recoiled, and swung out from behind a tree, taking aim and throwing his knife at the now-running prey. Jax cursed – almost! The dagger was still buried in the dikdik's side, the poor small thing leaving a mortal trail of dark red blood in its wake.

Quickly following this trail, Jax sped on through the forests of Sebulah after the creature he intended to kill, meanwhile drawing a self-manufactured crossbow. He doubted the wisdom of using technology while his people were in hiding, though Leader Kenmore had given him permission to use a stunner if necessary.

Catching up to it, Jax took aim and fired. The dikdik went down with a broken-hearted bleat, and the hybrid hissed in silent victory. Walking towards the dead body, Jax almost didn't notice when he stood on a caucasian-toned Human hand.

Stopping and looking down at it in confusion, Jax swiftly knelt and uncovered the rest of the sleeping body, which had been buried in last night's leaf fall. She was beautiful; Shoulder-length golden hair fell across a flushed, pretty face, her closed eyes large and expressive. Her front teeth were a bit large, but she was still very attractive.

Nevertheless, like all the Hybrids, Kanin Jax felt a born mistrust for anything related to the Human race. What was this girl doing here? He wondered, had the others of her race sent her to spy on the camp-like village? Or had she come here completely by accident?

Taking her hand and checking it for bruises, Jax decided that he hadn't damaged it too badly, and placed it across her stomach with her other hand. Scooping her up off the ground, Jax cradled her in his strong arms and moved toward the camp, where he would leave her in the care of his hunting partner, Dentin Karn, until he returned with the captured dikdik.

* * *

Rose Tyler woke up in a dimly lit canvas tent, staring up at the bark-less branch-supported roof. Frowning slightly, she tried to remember what had happened to get her here. She could not. Laying there on her back on a straw-mat pallet, all she could recall was the group of slick, green-skinned creatures with covered faces who had captured her and the Doctor, hissing a bit and prodding them with rifle-like weapons. The Doctor had decided to create a distraction by drawing his sonic screwdriver and making it light up, giving his peppery Human companion enough time to get away, scrambling through the bushes and trees of an alien forest she knew nothing about. How she had gotten here, she hadn't a clue.

Sitting up carefully, she looked about herself to see a small wooden table to her left, in the center of the room. On it was a Coleman lantern and what looked like a very sofisticated laptop computer. On the other side of the tent wall stood a weapons rack, holding a series of pistol-like stunners, alien rifles, swords and staffs of all shapes and sizes. Letting out a small gasp as she heard voices drawing near, Rose laid back down in a relaxed position and closed her eyes, pretending to be asleep as the tent flap was flung aside and two angry people walked in.

"I tell you, she's nothing but trouble, Michael!" snapped a male voice, horribly strange, as though two people were speaking at once.

Another strange, yet handsome voice answered back.

"Kedin, I assure you she will present no thread to twenty-odd of our kind," he told his argumentative partner, "She is small and weak, and we are designed to be strong, quick and superior. What worries you so much?"

"What worries...?" Kedin echoed in spluttering disbeleif, "I'll tell you what worries me, Michael Kenmore! What worries me is that she may be the first in an entire wave of damned, mangey Humans come to kill us all like the Wraith did last time!"

"This girl is not a Wraith," Michael reminded him, a small laugh in his slightly American, southerner-inflected tone.

"Yeah?" Kedin challenged him persistently, "And how many Wraith were there at first?"

Softly, Michael Kenmore answered, "One," apparently without fear that this bit of parallel would weaken his case in the slightest.

"Kedin Targenia," Michael continued, his voice now firm and commanding, "When I made you who you are today, I gave you those powers on one condition. Remember?" After a bit of silence, Michael went on, "You were to obey me in anything and everything, without question or complaint."

There was a long lapse of silence now. Kedin obviously didn't like to be reminded of his subordinance, but there wasn't much he could do.

"At any rate," said Michael, his voice drawing very near to Rose, "Had she intended to attack us, she would have done so already."

"What?"Kedin asked incredulously, "She's been asleep all this time!"

"I think not," Michael replied stoically, and nudged Rose in the shoulder, "She should know by now that she is not fooling anyone." Now addressing Rose, he said, "Get up, now."

Opening her blue eyes a bit reluctantly, Rose looked up into the face of a ghastly,yet somewhat good-looking alien man. His eyes were a chilling, pale yellow-green, his face so pale it was gray as death; his hair was gray, cut short and tusseled, but there was something about his demenor that assured one without reason that he was only about thrity or so. Across his face, a slitted second pair of nostrils slashed across either cheek, near the corners of his eyes, which were frowning down on her solemnly.

"How are you feeling?" he asked her, though it was evident that he wouldn't have cared if she said she was dying.

"A little better than when I fell asleep," Rose replied, "And a little curious."

"As am I," said Michael with a slight head-tip, "Who are you?"

"I'm Rose Tyler," she told him, "I travel with the Doctor."

"The Doctor?"

Rose hesitated. Would it be truly wise to tell him about her Timelord travelling partner?

"He's a friend," she told him vaguely.

"A Human friend?"

"No."

Onto another track now, Michael asked, "Why did you come here?"

Rose frowned slightly in consternation. "Because it looked like a good place to stop," she said honestly. Why was he and Kedin Targenia so suspicious of her because of her race?

Michael looked at her in calm disbeleif.

"So basically you stopped at Sebulah on a whim?" he asked her plainly, as though it were the most ridiculous thing he'd ever heard.

"Yes, exactly," Rose defended herself hotly, "Why are you being so iffy about it?"

"Because," Michael replied simply, "Few people stop at an uninhabited planet on a whim. There is always a reason for everything."

Rose rolled her eyes and replied smartly, "And my reason is because it looked like a good place to stop. Kaput."

"Kaput?" asked Kedin in confusion.

"It's German," Michael shot back over his shoulder before returning his gaze to Rose Tyler.

"Do you know who I am?" he asked her, as though he were quizzing her to make sure of the truth.

"Michael Kenmore," Rose replied.

"And how do you know that?" he asked again.

"Because Kedin called you that."

Behind Kenmore, Targenia slapped his forehead with a small groan. Michael loooked back breifly, then turned back to Rose with a tight smile.

"So how did you get in the Pegasus Galaxy?" Michael asked.

Rose shrugged. "The Doctor brought me here," she replied.

"Through the stargate?"

"The what?"

Michael rolled his eyes in disdain at her ignorance. "The stargate," he repeated, then explained, "A big round ring with a dial in the center? Takes you to other worlds?"

"Oh," Rose realized, blushing slightly, "No, of course not. We used - " She stopped before she could say 'TARDIS', "A space ship."

"One of Earth's?"

"No." Quite honestly, Rose hadn't known that Earth had space ships in the 21st century.

Michael frowned slightly, examining her face with his queer yellow eyes, checking to see if she was lying in any way. At length, he said, "Why don't I believe you?"

Unable to resist, Rose shot back, "Because you're paranoid."

Kedin laughed. Slowly, Michael turned and gave him a look that would fry an Excalbian, and that was saying a lot. Kedin shut up.

"May I ask questions now?" Rose asked the leader hopefully.

"You just did," Michael told her coldly.

"I know, but I need to know things," Rose replied.

Michael raised one hairless eye-brow. "I dare say you do," he commented wryly, "The Humans need to know what kind of technology we have, how many people are here, if I am leading them..."

"I don't want to know that," Rose stopped him, "I want to know where I am and if anyone has seen the Doctor."

"Kanin Jax was the one that found you. He might have," Kedin offered.

Michael shut him up with another look. "I thought you traveled 'together'," he commented to Rose.

"We were," she replied quickly, "But we were captured by aliens while exploring the forests. He made a distraction, and I thought he would escape too, but he didn't."

"This happened on Sebulah?" Michael asked, his face now sharp and wary.

"Yes," Rose replied.

"What sort of aliens were they?"

Rose described them. Michael's eyes narrowed at her description, and stood up from the pallet where Rose had been sitting.

"The Wraith," he told Kedin, "Spread the word. Get everyone ready."

"Wait...who are the Wraith?" Rose asked, now frantic at seeing that the aliens who had captured the Doctor were the kind that got even this bunch up and preparing for battle on a simple description.

"They're nothing but the scum time should have eradicated millenia ago," Michael shot back, "If your Doctor was captured by the Wraith, then he's already dead."

Rose felt a chill go up her spine. _Doctor_, she thought, _what sort of a world have you put me in?_


	2. Chapter 2

**Sebulah**

**By Nyala Necheyev**

**Chapter Two**

**The Wraith**

Inside a gigantic, living Wraith hive ship, The Doctor , the last of the race of Timelords, was being led down a murky corridor by two tall, muscular creatures he had identified immediately as the Wraith. The Doctor himself was a bit tall, with a lanky, thin body and a tussled mess of dark brown hair, his intelligent eyes the same color. The Doctor was wearing his usual attire; a dark jacket and slacks, his red-tennis-shoed feet moving steadily along the floor of the corridor.

His mind could go on the trail of many a thought, but, while he could have been contemplating the source of the duck-billed platypus, or where the end of the universe may be, or whether it would hurt when the universe DID end...but his mind was on one person, a small, delicate Human named Rose Tyler who traveled with him. He had left her there all on her own on that big planet, and had forgotten to tell her all about the aggressive, paranoid Hybrids who had put down roots on that very planet, led by a merciless, harsh individual by the name of Michael Kenmore. She could be dead by now, or have been forced to endure the retrovirus that would make her one of them, or she could be captured and being interrogated for information she did not know, things she could not know, because she was among the immense group of civilians that had never even heard of the Stargate Atlantis Project.

Feeling the silence like a suppressing blanket, the Doctor turned to the armed guard on his right.

"So where are you taking me?"

No answer. Turning to the one on his left, he said, "Oi, why's he so shy?"

The one on the left snarled at him and barked, "Silence!"

The Doctor saw no other alternative but to comply.

Soon they had arrived in what looked like a dimly-lit throne room. The damp air had caused a fog to surround the inhabitants, but the Doctor could make out the form of a slender, pale-green-skinned woman in a strapless, silk purple dress, just seething with serpentine elegance as she surveyed the prisoner before her.

Approaching, the Wraith Hive-Queen hissed appraisingly, her snakey yellow eyes looking him up and down as she circled the Doctor worldlessly.

At length, she commented, "You have done well, my servants. You may go now." Her voice was the voice of Death, chilling and beautiful at the same time. The guards bowed to her, then turned around and left, leaving the Doctor and the Queen alone in the throne room, save several Human girls who looked to be slaves of some sort, standing about the throne with vacant, worshipful expressions and bowed heads.

"'Ello," the Doctor smiled, breaking the silence that had followed. The Queen tilted her head inquisitively, her maroon, magenta-streaked long hair flowing over her shoulders.

"You do not smell Human," she told him.

"Well, of course I don't," the Doctor replied brightly, "'Cause I'm not."

"You smell like an Al-Terran...but different," said the Queen, circling him again like a hawk zeroing in on its hapless prey, "Like their distant cousins, also extinct..."

"Yup," the Doctor replied, "Cause that's what I am."

The Queen blinked in reptilian surprise. "But they were destroyed in The War."

"Naah," the Doctor corrected her, "We survived all that. The Orii? You people? Please."

"The Temporal War..." the Queen remembered, "Of course. But Gallifrey was destroyed by a tetryon cascade. Nothing survived."

"Ah, that's true," the Doctor admitted, "But some_one did_ survive. Me," he announced with a wan grin.

"You," the Queen echoed distainfully, "But not for long." Turning to a pair of Guards standing at the doorway, she ordered, "Take him to a cocoon. I will feed on him later, after the attack."

"Attack?" The Doctor asked, "What attack?"

"The destruction of Sebulah and those abominations that live on it!" the Queen hissed pridefully, then the guards came and took him away.

"The Hybrids?" exclaimed the Doctor over his shoulder as he was taken out of the throne room, "But you can't do that, they're supposed to live on for another five thousand years...!"

As the doors grew shut, the Queen snarled gleefully and hissed under her breath, "You are not the only one who survived Gallifrey's destruction, Doctor!"

When the Doctor was guided to his destination by the Wraith guards, he was disgusted at the sight of several people trapped in cocoon-like pods, bound up and helpless, some of them still conscious, begging the guards to release them and let them go as they passed. The guards didn't even deign to look at them. Women, children, old and young, all were either Human or humanoid, most sagging in their bonds, unconscious. The tall, young-looking Timelord struggled franticly and tried to escape as they forced him into a pod in the wall.

"Oi, stop!" he ordered, "Let me g-!"

A shot from one of the guards' rifles stunned him into unconsciousness, and the Doctor sagged limply, allowing the Wraith to place him in his pod. A cocoon-like wall grew over him, trapping him tightly, without any hope of escape.

* * *

Rose Tyler was still inside the tent she had woken up in, Michael and Kedin gone. Outside, she could here shouting orders and fearful murmuring, a total ocean of strange-sounding voices that lapped at Rose's ears like the tide of a sea, threatening to drown her in the cocaphany of it all. Where was the Doctor now? Rose wondered, Was he dead? Hurt? Needing her help? It wouldn't be the first time. And here she was, inside a tent among a race she knew nothing about, but one that knew everything about her's.

Making a firm decision, Rose stepped up to the tent opening, pushed aside the flap with a solid "thwak!" and walked outside, Head high and eyes wide open at the sight of her surroundings.

There was a moving crowd all about her, of men and women just like Michael and Kedin, all of them getting ready for an anticipated attack. The village she was in was made up entirely of tents, hinting at a nomadic culture, each tent probably holding its own stockpile of weaponry and survival equipment. Strangely enough, Rose didn't see any children. Weren't children an important part of a civilization's success?

Just then, a bright-eyed young man with pale brown hair and a slender, fit body spotted her and came up to her at a running trot. He was holding a pistol similar to what the Wraith had had attached to their belts when they had captured the Doctor and Rose.

"Hey," the stranger said as he approached her, "I'm Kanin Jax, I found you in the forest. How are you?"

"A bit scared," Rose admitted, "But it's more worry than anything."

Jax frowned slightly. "I understand," he told her, "Many people become worried or scared when they hear that the Wraith are near."

Rose nodded, then asked, "Could you tell me what the Wraith are, exactly? I've never really heard of them as anything but fantasy characters."

Jax consented. "Let's go into the tent," he suggested, "This is not the place for a Human to stand around talking."

Rose complied, following Jax back into the shelter where she had come from just a few minutes ago.

"Now," she said once they were inside, "Tell me."

"The Wraith," Jax began, "were a genetic accident that occurred when the Iratus bug – an arachnid – began feeding on Alterran life energy. If the Iratus bug was pregnant at the time, the eggs would absorb the humanoid DNA and adapt into a slightly Alterran version of the Iratus bug. As the descendants of that bug fed on Alterrans also, the Wraith soon began to take shape. Soon they were an entire race, one that fed on humanoid life energy only. They became the terror of the entire Pegasus Galaxy, and when the Alterrans tried to undo their mistake, The War devestated both races. The Alterrans ascended eventually to a higher plane of existance, and the Wraith went into hibernation. A new Human settlement, the city of Atlantis, blundered into that hiding spot five years ago and reawakened them. Now the Wraith are in a frenzy, and the Humanoids and Wraith are at war again."

"And where do you come in?" asked Rose, "Innocent bystanders?"

"Something like that, yes," Jax answered her vaguely, then glanced toward the tent flap as his name was called. "I have to go now. If you value your existance, stay inside and keep out of trouble."


	3. Chapter 3

**Sebulah**

**By Nyala Necheyev**

**Chapter Three**

It had been a while now, twenty-four hours in fact, since the young Sebulan Jax had left Rose alone in the tent to join his kind. The entire colony was now armed and ready, though still going about business as usual while they waited for their leader's order. Perhaps the Wraith ahd not detected them, and only stumbled across the two humanoids in the forest. Perhaps not. Nevertheless, Michael Kenmore was laying in wait, watching the wraith ship on the system-wide monitors, seeing what the cloaked sattelites in orbit around the planet could tell him about their newly arrived adversaries. Rose was allowed to move about the village, but the hostile glares and whispers behind her back still made her uncomfortable, so she still spent most of her time in the tent she had woken up in.

During the afternoon of her second day with the aliens, a young woman with streaming black hair and snappy golden eyes approached her as Rose was watching her, along with a few other girls, practicing fighting techniques.

"What are you staring at, Human?" she demanded.

"Sulaika, leave her alone..." sighed another, a bored, magenta-haired teen.

Ignoring the other girl, Sulaika pressed on.

"You think you're better than us?" she demanded of Rose, who shook her head in a negative, "You think you're more superior?" Another shake. "Well, then, maybe you're scared?"

After seeing how well they fought, it was all Rose could do to keep from nodding vigorously 'yes'.

"I'm not scared," she told them, "I've met with bullies on a playground before. Their only strength is in their hulk, not their brains."

"So you're saying we're stupid?" demanded Magenta-head, now as peaked as Sulaika.

"No, that's not what I meant," Rose explained quickly.

"So what _did_ you mean?" she asked coldly.

"I meant..." Rose thought quickly, "I meant that out-smarting people is more important than doing battle."

"So you think what we're doing here is useless?" Sulaika snapped disgustedly, "Well, what do you know anyway? You aren't wanted dead by the entire populants of two galaxies! You aren't being forced to run and hide every time an asteroid farts! You aren't wondering when your next meal is going to be!" With every 'you', the dark-haired Sebulan gave Rose a strong shove in both shoulders, forcing her to teeter backwards. On the third 'you', Rose lost her balance and fell into a pile of firewood.

"You're spoiled, that's what you are!" Sulaika barked angrily at her, "You know nothing of what it's like out here, you bitch! You have no idea - "

"_Sulaika_."

It was Michael Kenmore who had spoken. He was standing there behind Sulaika, having walked over after hearing the young woman's shouts. It was small wonder Magenta-head had been silent for some time – Michael's presence was clearly intimidating to all of his subjects.

Sulaika froze for a moment at hearing his voice, then backed off silently as a fog receded, not taking her eyes off the fallen Rose.

"Leader," she acknowledged.

"When I say your name, Sulaika Durran, I expect you to turn and face me," Michael reminded her sharply.

"Yes, Leader," said Sulaika in a soft, meek voice, and repentatively turned to face her master.

Michael glance over at Rose momentarily, then turned back to his fellow Hybrid. "Picking on a being lesser than you is something only our enemies would do."

"Yes, Leader," Sulaika answered him quietly.

"Should I treat you as we treat them?"

"No, Leader."

"If I hear one more word about you attacking Tyler, I will," Michael warned her finally, "Is that understood?"

"Yes, Leader."

"Go."

Eager to get away from the man's displeased glare, Sulaika half ran, half stumbled away as fast as she could, taking Magenta-head and the other girls with her. Michael then turned his attention toward Rose, stepping forward and looking at her appraisingly. Rose got up out of the logs, and brushed herself off, thankful that Michael had intervened.

"What happened?"

"Nothing," Rose replied, "Thanks, by the way."

"I would advise you not to leave my sight from now on, Tyler," Michael ordered her coldly, "Otherwise it might not be only Sulaika that falls out of my favor."

"Yes, sir," Rose responded uneasily, and turned to go back to her tent.

Watching her go, Michael Kenmore contemplated the situation of the Human girl's presence. So far, he was convinced that she had had nothing to do with the Humans who had mistreated him and his kind, because she was a terrible liar. He knew that now, when her mouth had said that nothing had occurred, but her eyes said that something had indeed. But still, she could decide to turn against them at any time. Humans were untrustworthy as the Wraith, Michael had learned early on in his harsh, epic life. There was no hard truth or lie. Everything could be turned backwards and upside down. No one in this universe could be trusted.

But still, he mused, it would be useful to have a human on his people's side. In time, she may even be willing to spy on her own kind for them, if treated properly. It was all a matter of which perspective she formed over time. A girl with a mind like hers could be easily be persuaded to do many things. Not that she was stupid, of course. She had a good mind, but it was inclined toward the small and helpless. Michael was loathe to think of it, but in the grand scale of things, the Hybrid Race was small and helpless compared to the immense, biracial forces that stood against them.

But how to begin...?

A few hours later, Michael Kenmore appeared at the door of Rose's tent. He had been standing there for longer than Rose knew, for she had only just noticed him. His body still but wired for action, handsome face observing her remotely in the evening sunlight, Rose turned with a gasp and wondered how long the alien being had waited before she noticed him just now.

"How long have you been standing there?" she asked inquisitively.

Michael smiled dryly. "As long as it took," he told her, entering the tent, "I came to invite you to have dinner with me."

"In the middle of a war crisis?" Rose asked with a smile laugh, "Is that even ethical?"

"It may be," replied Michael, tilting his head thoughtfully, "Under the right circumstances."

Rose nodded silently, then thought for a moment before saying, "I accept. But no funny business," she added with a nervous laugh. Michael smiled faintly in return, then stepped closer.

"Then follow me," he ordered her gently, and led the way out of the Human's tent, through the scattered nomadic village, and into another tent, one made of some kind of reddish-furred animal, unmarked and unremarkable from the others. In answer to Rose's unspoken question, Michael told her, "I find it wise not to differentiate myself too much from my fellow creatures. It would make it all the more easy for them to find me."

Gesturing toward the waiting table, which was simple enough, bearing two plates of simple food, the table unclothed, no unecessary elegance added, "Now, please, have a seat."

"It's sort of sad, this place," Rose remarked a bit afterwards, as she and Michael were sitting at the table chatting over empty wooden dinner plates, "You almost seem like you don't even belong on this world, like you're always travelling. Is it always like that in the Pegasus Galaxy? Everyone scared and running from these Wraith?"

Michael's face showed no change in emotion at her almost rudely negative statement.

"No," he replied softly, as though his mind were somewhere else, "In some places, people get lucky, and they find some safe haven, or they make the right allies, or they ..." he glanced down at his pale-skinned, slender hand, "Look right."

"Seriously?" Rose asked. Michael nodded yes.

"That's wrong," the young woman decided firmly, frowning in displeasure, "No one should be denied help because of their appearance or … or misfortune."

"I couldn't agree more," Michael replied, "But that's what happened for the Athosians and the Danterrians and a billion other races out there just like them. But we Hybrids … we are cut off because the Humans believe we are unworthy."

"That can't be true," Rose retorted hopefully, "There's got to be someone out there willing to help you."

"If only that were true, Miss Tyler," Michael replied with a sad smile, "But it's not."

Just then, Kenin, Jax, and Sulaika came running into the tent. Sulaika's nose twitched once in Rose's direction, then her gaze averted itself when Michael stood, waiting to here what they had to say that was more important than he and Rose's conversation.

"News, Leader," Kenin informed him, "Of the Wraith's movements."

Turning quickly, Michael ordered Rose, "Out."

"But -" Rose started.

"Out!" he ordered again, this time pointing out the entrance with one straight finger. Rose hesitated, then nodded and quickly ran past him, ducking under the tent flap and standing outside under the stars, the tent's inner glow making it look like a shrine in the wilderness, along with a few other tents where lights still glowed, faintly illuminating the inhuman forest of Sebulah.

"...moved closer in orbit," she heard Kenin saying in a quick, steady voice, "If we are ever going to act, Leader, now would be the time."

"I give out orders in this camp, not you, Kenin," Michael barked back agressively, "We will strike when thetime is right. But it is not yet."

"When will it be 'yet'?" demanded Sulaika, "They only have to start transporting down from their hive ship and we are dead, Leader. Hybrid ingenuity will not help us this time. Not when they're attacking our entire people en masse."

"This is the second time you have stepped out of line today, Sulaika," Michael intoned dangerously, "Another time and you will not live to see another."

Sulaika fell silent then, with a faintly murmured line Rose assumed to be "Yes, sir."

"Now," said Michael, "Jax, I want you to take Sulaika and wake the others. The time to strike is near. Kenin, stay here."

Jax left the tent, and Rose hurried to dash out of sight just in time. Sneaking back up to the flap, she listened in on the rest of the conversation between Michale and his subordinates.

"Leader, I swear, the Wraith are stronger than us by far, if not in genetics, then in sheer numbers -"

"Kenin," Michael interrupted his concerned Second, "When I first started my experiments, I made sure than our kind could withstand anything our mother species threw at us, including en masse attacks. And don't be forgetting, the tree cover in this place would hinder any Wraith Dart or Human X-303."

Rose's heart let into her throat at those words. _Mother species_...did he mean that his entire species, that he himself, was desended from the creatures who had kidnapped the Doctor? The Wraith? And what was that about Humans? She pressed in to listen closer.

"But what if the Humans are helping them, Michael?" Kenin pressed on, "Two species at once...that is one species too much, Leader, and with our limitted numbers and weaons supply -"

"I made a promise that I would guide this race to victory, Kenin!" Michael cut him off angrily, his fist slamming onto the empty dinner table, "I will not break that promise! Is that understood, Second Targenia?"

Kenin, obviously intimidated, bowed his head and meekly responded "Yes, sir," before turning about and exitting the canvas tent.

Rose Tyler, her thoughts in a turmoil of terror and confusion, made up one single decision – to run. Turning tail on Kenmore's tent, Rose ran off in a burst of speed she had never thought possible, right for the Sebulan woods that would shelter her better than anything.


End file.
